NYC Gazette

New York City Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens) called out his fellow Democratic council members for what’s expected to be a veto-proof approval Thursday of a measure giving 800,000 noncitizens in the city the right to vote in municipal elections.

“I think this is a terribly bad bill,” Holden told the National Review. “It’s amazing it has this many co-sponsors. For the life of me, I don’t know why any elected official would want this.”

The measure would give green card holders and those with work permits the right to vote in municipal elections if they have lived in the city 30 days prior to the election.

Outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio has said he would not veto the bill, and incoming Mayor Eric Adams has indicated his support for the measure. Adams will be sworn in Jan. 1, 2022.

The prime sponsor of the bill, Ydanis Rodriguez (D-Manhattan), has argued that those covered by the law pay taxes and, therefore, should have the right to vote.  

“I think that there’s people in our society that go to sleep with so much fear of immigrants that they try to make an argument to disqualify their right to elect their local leaders,” Rodriguez told the Associated Press. “This is about whether we are living in New York City, we are contributing to New York City and paying taxes in New York City.”

But in a Nov. 26 commentary, the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal noted that the argument that residents with green cards and work authorizations, who would be given the right to vote in the proposal, are paying taxes without representation “isn’t persuasive.”

“Nonresidents with second homes or apartments in the city pay property taxes, and they certainly have an interest in public services like police, fire and garbage collection,” the editors wrote. “International students live in New York, and they might pay taxes of all kinds, or at least sales taxes on whatever they buy. Does that mean they should get to vote in local races? The obvious answer is no.”

And the editors of the National Review wrote Nov. 26, “There are good reasons why Americans have traditionally limited the vote to citizens. Citizenship is no mere formality, as anyone who has attended a citizenship ceremony can attest. It is a bond of right, responsibility and affection between the citizen and the nation.”

Holden said that the law will have “immense ramifications.”

“It could decide many council races around the city of New York," he told the National Review. "It could decide the mayoral election. Eric Adams only won the Democratic primary by 7,000 votes or so.”

Allowing noncitizens to vote is trending across the nation. Nine Maryland cities allow it, as does the San Francisco Board of Education, according to the Pew Foundation, which said Washington, D.C., Illinois and New York City are considering the practice.

Jack Tomczak, national field director with Americans for Citizen Voting (ACV), says giving noncitizens voting rights sends the wrong message.

“What kind of message is this to those who have earned the right to vote by earning their citizenship?” Tomczak told the Green Mountain Times for an earlier story.